Why?

Well, because the twists in this novel were too much for my heart to take so I wanted to finish it off and put an end to it as soon as possible, and on the other hand I wanted to read on and on because very rarely do we get a story which leads you to think in one direction all through a chapter and then throws you off the track completely. Ricky Khosla has an amazing way of building the plot and then ending the chapter with a banging shock, pretty much like those lozenges whose sweet exterior diminishes slowly to suddenly reveal that electrifying sourness at the centre, leaving its taste in your mouth after contorting your face into weird expressions. He truly lives by the phrase 'Calm before the storm' I think. 

Now to talk about the lady whose life is what this novel is all about. You can call her the protagonist or the antagonist of this novel, you can think of her as the heroine or the villain in her own life. 

To take it from the top, a teenage girl has fate play a cruel bout on her life, leaving her and her brother in an orphanage that changed her and her brother's life in unimaginable ways. The life that she led there and the things that she had seen, turned her soft spine made of human bones surrounded in flesh and blood turn into an iron rod with nerves of steel. Her brain, which was once full of childish whims metamorphosed into a powerhouse with a complex maze. On the other hand her brother, the one who had always been shy, turned into something that you will know of only in the last few pages of the novel. Not that he disappears in between. You will be aware of his presence, yet you won't know it's him.

Let's make a list of words and phrases which would describe our lady in question:

• Impish - What her light-hearted flirting and dazzling smile usually made people think of her.
• Rational - Carefully chalked out every plan of retribution. So much so, that there are times when your eyes go round in astonishment and a fraction of a second later you have a smirk on your face, appalled by the audacity of the girl and her method of executing the most scandalous plans.
• Determined - You will never see her not doing what she has already put her mind to. Never.
• Selfish - She didn't care about anyone. Except for one. She cared for one and one only. And half for another. That's about it.
• Cold hearted - A woman who first built warm relationships just to get rid of the person on the other end, has to be cold-hearted right? However when you reach the end of the novel, you decide whether her heart pounds ice cold blood or the complete opposite. 
• Innocent - She was so once, but soon had it snatched away from her. Well not exactly snatched. To face up to the people she had to deal with, she more than willingly gave it away. 
• Lover - Every being seeks tenderness and love from someone. Even though she twirled people around her little finger, she did find love. But karma did to her what she did to others.  
• Sensuous - Incredibly attractive, to the extent that men couldn't look elsewhere. She didn't use it as a weapon, she just used it as a tool to entice. 
• Talented - She gained fame in Bollywood but not without being backed up by talent.
• Bull's eye aim - She never fails with her meticulous plans.
• Remorseless - She doesn't even know what remorse means.
• Vengeful - Fall in the way of the lioness and you can guess what will happen to them. 
• Brave - Can you imagine the guts of a woman who lives by the name of the first person she brought about an end to?  Also that's not the end of it. She has more stories of bravery scattered all through the novel.